So, I live near DC, and
I have written about a thousand letters - all
'A' material - to the editor of the Washington
Post. Naturally, not one of them has ever been published.

Recently, however, I finally
had better luck, finally getting a LTE published, although
in a slightly less prestigious paper. The Heber
Springs, Arkansas Sun Times to be exact. Actually
it is one of the ten least prestigious papers
in the U.S., but I am adding it to my resume nonetheless.

What inspired my LTE was
a letter printed in the Sun Times from a Ms. Julia
Slocum of Edgemont, AR which took a somewhat negative
tone regarding Atheists. That is not unusual.
What IS unusual about the letter is the sheer
concentration of venom, erroneous information,
and unadulterated bigotry she managed to cram into only
346 words.

Her letter is printed below, followed
by my response.

(Julia
Slocum's letter in Heber Springs, Arkansas
Sun Times 7Mar05)

Atheism: No
place for integrity...
Dear Editor: Atheists
are still crawling out from under their
rotten logs. The Bible calls them "willingly ignorant" - meaning "dumb
on purpose." This condition causes them to hear the exact
opposite of what is being said. The latest, "charming,
woefully uninformed" lady atheist is full of venom. Christ
said if they hated Him, they would hate His followers.
She accuses Christian culture of a long history of violence.
Let's see what atheism has wrought: Atheism, Nazism,
Socialism, Communism are basically the same. They all
lack intellectual and moral integrity. Charles Darwin
lost his faith in God when he read atheist Charles Lyle's "Principles
of Geology." Darwinism (Evolution) has had a devastating
impact. It's an anti-Christian system of beliefs and
practices, completely antagonistic to God. It's responsible
for every "ism" to come down the pike in the last century.
Hitler (Nazism) was turned aside by the platitudes of
the atheist, Frederick Nietzsche (the idea of a master
race). Christ never did what Hitler did. Hitler and his
regime, were followers of atheists, not Christ (Christian).
Carl Marx had Darwin write an introduction to "Das Capitol" because
felt he had provided a scientific foundation for Communism.
Anyone who pushes the Communist conspiracy also pushes
an evolutionary, imperialistic, naturalistic view of
life, endeavoring to crowd the Creator out of the Cosmos.
Stalin, murdered more people than Hitler. When asked
what should be done with the 15,000 or so, Polish officers
that had been captured, answered, "They are just Poles.
They haven't 'evolved' as far as we have. Shoot them." So
they did. Mussolini, who frequently quoted Darwin, said
war was necessary for the survival of the fittest. The
subtitle of Darwin's book is "Preservation of favored
races in the struggle of life." Who gets to decide the "favored
races"? Christ particularly hated baby murderers. Non-believers
are responsible for the American Holocaust
of abortion. Over 40 million babies have
been murdered in the last 32 years. By
atheists. Pol Pot, Osama bin Lauden,
Saddam, (not Christians) killed millions. Christians
are being systematically murdered in Sudan now by atheists. Julia Slocum, Edgemont

(My response printed on 9Mar05)Atheism much
misaligned!... (the editor probably meant 'maligned') Dear
Editor: In her comments on Atheism, Ms.
Slocum, in what seems to pass for tolerance and
compassion, released a torrent of hate, untruth,
and accusation against Atheists, calling them
dishonest, dumb, ignorant, comparing them to the vilest
of murderers, the worst of liars, the most despicable
of characters, and yes, insects.
Ms. Slocum may have gone a bit over the top. For the record,
Charles Darwin did not write an introduction for Das Capital.
All you have to do is check your facts. That was a bit
of false witness on the part of the Ms. Slocum. Also for
the record, Hitler was a catholic who was never excommunicated
from the church. Ms. Slocum seems to confuse Nazism and
Communism, and to be unaware that Hitler was an anti-communist
- enough so that he killed 20 million Soviets in the war he
started against them. The Communists/Socialists killed another
20 million of their own because they were murderous despots
consolidating power by eliminating all dissent. Absolute power
was their only motivation.
Atheism had nothing in common with Nazism and was never
cited by a single Nazi as justification for any act or
motivation. Socialism and Communism, were extreme political
ideologies which replaced one religion with their own -
the all good, all powerful, all knowing STATE.
Ms. Slocum says that Atheists "lack intellectual and moral
integrity". This is also contrary to the facts. Atheists are,
demographically speaking, more highly educated than the
ardently religious. They are far more likely to be engaged
in Science than in mythology. They are less likely to end
up in either prison or in congress - both of those institutions
contain a higher percentage of god-believers than the general
population. And you will find that Atheist are everywhere,
participating in society, in government, in education,
in research, in law enforcement, in the military, in homes
and families, no different than any other person, except
far less likely to viciously and dishonestly attack another
person for their privately held beliefs.
As an Atheist, I will contrast and compare my intellectual
and moral integrity with any member of the religious community.
I have a strongly developed sense of right and wrong. I
believe in life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.
I am a Navy veteran and a patriot and an activist supporter
of the Constitution and the First Amendment. I am a fully
enfranchised, law-abiding citizen, a parent, a taxpayer, and
I am engaged in the community. I keep a nice home in good repair.
I do not kill or steal. One does not need the ancient god-fables
to know what is right.
Ms. Slocum's tirade begs the question: if Atheists are
the scourge to America that she says we are, where is the
actual evidence of that. It looks to me that the worst
transgressors of national morality and ethics come from
dishonest politicians, clergy behaving badly, the greed-driven
captains of industry. It looks to me that ignorance and
superstition and faith-based assaults on our education
system do far more damage to our moral and intellectual
integrity than Atheists ever could. (This last paragraph
was edited for length, but I include it here because
it was part of my original response)Ms. Slocum's irrational, misinformed
and frightening diatribe against Atheists starkly illustrates
what we are up against; the most hateful, bigoted, and unfounded attacks
on us by people awash in religious fervor, frequently
claiming biblical justification, and employing flagrant
lies and the vilest of hate-speech . For most of
the last 2000 years, people like myself have fared poorly
at the hands of people like Ms. Slocum. We have literally
been hunted, imprisoned, tortured and killed for the unforgivable
sin of having arrived at a different opinion than the dominant
religion mandates. Only the Constitution and the First
Amendment have protected free citizens of good conscience
from the witch-burning mob mentality that mindless hatred justifies
and facilitates. If people like Ms. Slocum had their way,
we would find ourselves once again living in a country where
it was lethal and criminal to be an Atheist or to disagree
with the official religion. That is exactly the way it is
handled by the Taliban.